Lucky
by amidola
Summary: Alternate take on the final episode of season one.Exploration of the character dynamic between Emma/Regina Swanqueen and a few themes of the show.Multichapter. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**_I do not own the characters,storybrooke,or abc. Nada. I am not making any money out of this,or plan to,k?_

_**A/N:**I dreamt that these two had hooked up. Then I scolded myself for having the mind I do,and then I saw, that I wasn't the only one. They have an awfully interesting dynamic._

_This is basically another take on the season one finale. That said:It's not in here, because the pacing is very different, but I really liked the storage room scene._

_I hope you'll enjoy this little tale._

* * *

The bed was full of tubes.

Plastic tubes everywhere.

There was a bigger tube that snuck out from underneath Henry's bedsheets like a snake, connecting his urethra with a plastic bag that collected the urine.

Because only conscious boys could pee for themselves.

Another one descended from the air, an iv drip that fed his body fluids.

Because boys that aren't awake can't drink.

They would only choke.

The liquid that one pours into their mouths would flow into their trachea, causing pneumonia.

As a baby, that doesn't happen, because babies have some sort of reflex, that allows them to drink, even when half asleep.

Emma hadn't had him for that long, but she knew that much.

In a weird way, memory flung her former cell mate's random baby facts back at her.

Pregnant and incarcerated at 18, the older woman had quickly taken her under her motherly wing, full of good advice and intentions.

And now, her words came back to Emma.

At the most inopportune moment ever.

Bits and pieces,advice and tales, like a ball of old string, thrown at her over the course of time, catching her in the stomach in the here and now.

There was another tube, one that carried air into his nose, because he was, thank God,still able to breathe, although, obviously, not quite that sufficiently.

Of course,there were, also in plastic encasing, the cables.

Pulse and ECG and oxygen measures,

Data that crawled over a monitor by the boy's head.

Lines and numbers that vaguely suggested that he was,still, alive.

But it was his chest, more than anything,that told of this fact.

It moved the blanket feebly covering it up and down ever so slightly, and Emma exhaled with each breath he released.

Henry was so pale, so very pale, and she missed him, missed the sunshine in his eyes and the light of his smile.

She missed the way he grinned, and talked and whispered and hopped by her side.

She missed his voice and his little, clam hand in hers.

Her son's.

At the thought, her eyes unglued themselves from the assuring steady rise and fall of the crisp white hospital blanket and froze themselves onto the person sitting across from where she was,still, standing.

There was the mayor, sitting, bent over, her eyes fixed Henry's white face.

She did not look up, and Emma Swan noticed the boy's tiny left hand disappear in a pair of finely manicured clasped hands above it.

Regina did not move, she did not twitch,even though, she surely could feel the shift of the blonde's attention.

All of her attention was concentrated solely on the boy's shut eyelids as though

she might miss a flinch,a sign, if she looked away but only for a moment.

"That apple was meant for you."

Her voice was dark and rough with grief and worry and yet she managed to spit the sentence as though it were an accusation, as though it was Emma's fault, that she had poisoned the pie.

And she did,actually, feel guilty.

Emma Swan wished for nothing more, than that she would have been the on to have eaten that apple turn over, that it would be her,lying in that bed, held captive by tubes.

Instead of..her son.

Another voice from a more recent past stole itself through her mind

"_I changed his diapers.."_

The sentence reverberated through her head.

It seemed as if from another lifetime.

For a wild moment,glancing at the yellowing bag by the bed, she wondered how the mayor had taught her son how to pee.

Their son.

He was her son,too.

Their son's life was on the line.

Literally.

"What was the poison?" she needed to know.

They needed to make leeway in this, they needed to get an antidote.

They needed, above else,to save Henry.

Preferably right now.

She could not bear the thought, the mere idea of loosing him.

What would a world without his smile be like?

How could there still be a world without his magic little presence in it?

The woman in front of her did not move from her impossible position, but she swallowed hard.

Tears suddenly filled the dark eyes, that Emma could have sworn were incapable of crying.

" There is no antidote" she paused, swallowing again, speaking was obviously an effort for her,and when the queen continued, it was in a whisper.

"He is just a child.."

There are things such as reflexes, and there are impulsive people, who never really learn control of theirs.

Emma Swan's reflexes were of the good kind, she had learned to appreciate them over the years, but when she suddenly found herself on the other side of the bed, cradling the head of the woman who had,very recently,too, tried to kill her, against her chest, she seriously doubted them.

Their son.

She sighed, as the first sob tore through Regina's body.

She bent, and held the crying mayor tighter to her, as she began to shake violently.

Ok, so maybe she hadn't always been the warmest of mothers, but it had always been clear to Emma, that even if her way of showing it was a little on the possessive side, Regina had truly cared for Henry.

She ran a hand through the dark hair in an effort to calm her.

Emma's eyes rested on Henry's face.

She wondered about the birthdays that she had missed, the first steps, the first teeth, the first essay, he wrote, the first time he had had cocoa, all the little firsts, and she sincerely hoped that what she had experienced with him,weren't the lasts.

Tears sprung to her own eyes.

The last cocoa, that would have been yesterday at Granny's.

She inhaled sharply at the onsurge of pain.

It was blinding and all consuming and its intensity and power surprised her.

She had had heartache before, and not too little of it..but this felt,as though someone was literally ripping her heart out.

Flesh of my flesh.

Emma heard someone howl in the distance, and she suddenly felt a steel hand at the back of her neck, a hand that slid up and buried itself in her hair.

That,with surprising strength,pulled her head against a warm and stately neck.

She felt dismembered, disjointed, as though Henry had been the glue to her, and now she was

falling apart,into a million little puzzle pieces, that she hadn't known she was, before she met him.

She felt her legs give out.

There was another hand,now, that found its way around her waist,that belonged to an arm, that pulled her in, that held her close, while grief,the unexpected wave of desperation and pain, swept over her and undid her wholly.

.without,Henry.

...

Suddenly she realized, that it had been her,who had been howling, and that she was here, and Henry was in that bed, and that hope was not yet lost,mustn't be and...

As the waves ebbed, she tried to calm her breathing.

Breathe in, and breathe out.

Easy..easy..

Of course, what else would she be breathing in and out,but the smell of apples?

It was the mayor's characteristic smell, and yet, Henry's,too.

At least it was familiar.

She had worn her clothes for a little while, after all.

Emma Swan unglued herself from the the other woman's neck, only to discover,that she was half kneeling by the chair.

Regina still held her, and tried to check her face through her own tear stained eyes.

"Are you alright?" the queen's voice was still only a whisper, but Emma found, that she couldn't speak yet, at all.

She got up haphazardly steadying herself on the back of the mayor's chair, and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

The other woman fished a knitted handkerchief out of her purse with which she dabbed at her own brown eyes.

Doctor Wells chose that moment to enter the room.

He had both mothers' undivided attention immediately.

"The reason for Henry's unconsciousness is not entirely clear.." he began.

Te sheriff interrupted him brusquely.

"I told you, that he ate those apple turnovers and.."

"Miss Swan,there is no sign of an intoxication,the symptoms are entirely different, I know you might think, that because of the coincidence in time and place.."

"How is he?" This time, it was Regina's voice who cut him off.

She sounded small and frightened, almost pleading.

Surprised, the doctor immediately dropped his earlier subject matter.

"He is..stable. His vital signs are perfect, he is simply..unconscious, and I cannot tell you, for the life of me why..we ran an MRI on his brain, did an EEG to detect brain activity that would suggest a prolonged epileptic seizure, we ran his blood for substances.." he glared at Emma... "but we've come up empty so far..the reason.."

Regina shook her head, "But doctor,he is fine?Merely..asleep?Stable?"

The physician shook his head, "Yes,yes it would seem that way, but the reason..".

"Alright."

With one swift move, the mayor stood up.

Tall and straight as ever.

She matter of factly grabbed Emma's hand, "Miss Swan, we need to talk. Now." and dragged a very befuddled sheriff out of the room with her.

They stood in front of the elevator, holding hands, much to the amazement of the people emerging from it.

Regina pulled a still dumbfounded Emma Swan out of the hospital and down the sidewalk with her.

After they had walked a few hundred yards,the sheriff had sorted her thoughts enough to form her question.

"What was in that pie?"

"The apple it was made from provides the eater with dreams full of regret. Dreams one never wakes up from."

Emma turned to her, aghast.

"No telling what it might do to a child, or what kind of magic it holds in this world. Magic here..is unpredictable."

The sheriff swallowed hard.

"How can you be so calm about this?Henry is caught in a neverending nightmare.." she felt her own hand grow cold against the mayor's palm.

"The EEG would have shown stressful dreams, " she gave the blonde a tight smile.

"And,besides, children do not yet know the meaning of regret."

They rounded a streetcorner, the light of the lamp flickered as they passed.

"It seems, that the apple has retained its basic property of making people sleep in this world, with the more garish side effects being useless on a child, " the queen sighed,her relief obvious now, she continued more quietly "I was afraid he might have overdosed, or been vitally endangered."

Emma was furious.

She spun the mayor around to a standstill.

"You call this ok?Him being asleep forever is ok for you?"

Regina pressed the hand she still held in hers.

"Of course it's not ok. But it gives us time. The time we need to find a solution."

She meant to continue on their path and pulled at Emma's hand to get her to come along, but the sheriff remained stock still.

This argument wasn't over yet.

"We?"she held up their joined hands.

"You're the savior." Regina tightened the hold she had on the raised hand.

"So,yes, "_we_"."


	2. Chapter 2

The mind is a funny little thing.

It blunders with some concepts,that are matter of fact and it easily eases into others that most definitely aren't.

Birth and Death and Life and Faith and Love and such are subjects that have cracked the skulls and hearts of fools and wisemen alike for generations and centuries.

And yet reality, as a concept, as a word in the dictionary, has always been easily enough accepted and tucked safely away in the recesses of one's mind.

Such luxury for a thing so cumbersome for some and so irrelevant to others.

Such certainty for a thing so subjective.

An individual perception taught by parents and environment.

To some it is taught by their children

_The savior_,_of course._

Emma was sitting on the mayor's very white couch.

How the queen managed to keep the upholstery this exact shade of whitest white and spotless to boot with a ten year old around was a mystery not even the use of dark magic could explain.

_Dark Magic. Savior._

_Pinocchio._

_Poisoned Apples._

Not believing was a luxury Emma Swan could not afford anymore with her son's life in the gamble.

She believed,because she had to.

A book, a curse, an unfound miracle..

There was no wondering what her role, her place in this new world she suddenly found herself in was.

It was written.

She was the savior.

She was the magic being who was to break a curse.

The curse, that held them all enthralled.

All of them,but her.

-And the queen.

Regina having found her way back to her old self sauntered into the living room with two crystal tumblers of amber liquid in her hands.

Her eyes were still red rimmed, there were dark lines underneath them, that weren't to be attributed to the flawless make up she had touched up upon.

Maybe she wasn't all of her old self,yet, but there was as always, the old animosity and challenge in her eyes when she addressed Emma.

"I take it,you don't care for any soda, or maybe even," she smiled a smile that was more of a sneer " a spritz of lime?".

Emma set her lips in a line, "This is fine, thank you." she couldn't help the barb " I hope there are no other special ingredients."

At this,the mayor blanched,almost imperceptibly,and Emma Swan, was,for once, sorry about her goading.

"Look, this has got to stop." the blonde tried to lighten the mood "Both of us want to help Henry.", change it into something more productive,for, by the Grace of God, this needed to change,too, a stalemate of bitchiness would get them nowhere..and Emma,really, was sorry.

The mayor had sat down next to her, letting her brown eyes lose focus in the finely chiseled crystal she contained in her grasp.

Everything was definitely not alright.

Regina was not back to her kind of normal.

"Both of us need to work together." the queen concluded,after a pause, still looking into her glass.

"Yes." Emma was still truly sorry, she reached out and took the other woman's hand,giving her a tight lipped smile.

Regina could see the effort this cost her and turnng her head fully smiled back at the blonde.

There was something about the way the sides of the lips quirked, when she smiled,that reminded her painfully of Henry.

She gently squeezed Emma's hand in reassurance.

"We can go back to trying to kill each other,when he's alright again." the queen said softly.

At this Emma's smile grew, and it grew lopsided, like her son's,and Regina had the brief sensation of being struck into the heart by a sharp object.

A sensation she had not experienced in a long time, and yet, today seemed to be the day she had a subscription to that sentiment in differing intensity.

Trying not to notice the brief flash of pain in the queen's eyes, Emma unlatched her hand and turned to the book spread out before them on the coffee table.

"So,how do we start?" she asked as cheerfully as she could.

"You ask me questions."

The blonde turned to the mayor in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"I hold no magic in this realm, which means we are going to have to do it your way, and you're the sheriff."

Emma pondered this for a moment.

Believing didn't mean that she was particularly infatuated with the idea, that there was another world, where she had a set, and very vital part in.

Too vital for her taste.

But there was no time and space to be regretting that now.

This was also not the time and space to try to be ignoring all of this as best as she could.

This was not the time and space to be perusing books for answers,when the very evil queen herself was sitting just inches away from her,either.

Oh,boy.

Emma took a sip of her drink.

A very mellow malt whiskey.

Classy.

Of course.

"So," she leaned back against the side of the couch, drawing her white stockinged feet up with her to face the woman she was about to interrogate,"you're the evil queen."

Regina kept her glass in her hand, and swirled the liquid in it around a few times before answering.

She,too, leaned back into the cushions, making herself more comfortable.

"Yes." she said, as a smile crept across her lips.

Emma furrowed her brow.

Instinct and reflex was how she worked.

"Were you born wicked?"

In a reverse mirror sentiment both of Regina's brows shot up.

"The nature, of evil,I see.." she took another sip of her drink.

"Interesting line of questioning there, sheriff."

Without replying to the question,she got up to get the bottle of liquor from the kitchen and refilled both of their glasses before slipping off her high heels and tucking her legs underneath herself on the couch.

She swirled the liquid in the glass without drinking it.

Her look drifted into a far off distance.

" Evil is made and not born,Miss Swan. No matter what anyone says."

Emma blinked, the queen's immediate defensiveness suggested a challenge, but she waited instead of going for it.

"There are rules in the world of magic, which you are not the only one to know very little about. This is one of them."

The queen kept looking into somewhere a lot farther away in time and space than her living room wall, while she took another taste of her drink and waited for Emma to ask the next question.

"Why you,then?"

At this,Regina gave a short burst of an angry laugh.

"How would I know?" she growled.

"I was happy enough. I was..I was going to be even happier, before..."she chucked the remainders of the glass down in one,bitter,flaming gulp, "before SHE showed up."

Emma was surprised.

"She?"

The queen turned around to her, facing her fully, malignancy now obvious in her features.

"Your very dear,very good mother. Snow White."

Emma felt her own drink suddenly burn her tongue, forgotten.

But instead of a "How?" which the queen expected,which she would have been very happy to explain, Emma said," Your adopted son's grandmother?"

Regina had been about to pour herself another glass, when the bottle almost slipped form her grasp.

How easy it is to ignore the things one does not want to see.

She set the bottle down and buried her head in her hands.

"He is mine." she finally said, when her face reemerged.

There was a fire burning in her eyes, but it was borne more of desperation than anything else.

"You gave him up, she doesn't even know who he is, she doesn't even remember _you_."

Regina finally got up,to pace the room in her silk stockinged feet.

She ran a hand through her usually so well groomed hair,which was getting to be more and more of a mess today.

"All of this.." she began, "is Maleficient's fault."

"Come again?" Emma was leaning forward in her seat.

She had the feeling she was missing something here.

"Maleficient..she said.._a pet_..that they are some sort of comfort...and that I would get over it..the price..the price to pay..would be too high.."

Regina stalled her wanderings.

She suddenly turned to Emma.

"28 years, Emma, I remember all of them." she looked up to the ceiling.

"The others, they don't remember, this is their curse.." she took up her pacing again, her steps now, however,were small and fast and anguished,her hands clasped behind her back.

"Remembering,with this hole in my heart..with this emptiness...is mine."

Again, she turned to the blonde sitting on her couch.

"Time did not pass for them." her voice grew low, as her walking slowed.

"But it passed for me."

She had reached the couch now, and grasped its back,where Emma was sitting.

"A pet...Maleficient said,_there's comfort in a pet_...but there's weakness in love..and..and Maleficient grew weak over a horse..a _pony_." there were tears starting to shine in her eyes, tears of mockery and anger and pain.

"But for me,you see, in a land with no magic, there was nothing to grow weak by..there was this..this hollowness..this great and terrible hollowness..." she touched the blouse,where her heart was, "and I wanted it to stop..I needed it to..to.."

Emma gently covered the hand that still held on to the couch.

"..stop." the queen concluded.

There were tears now finding their way over her cheeks.

Her eyes had a light in them as she looked into Emma's, but she quickly averted her gaze in favor of an intricate study of the coffee table.

"_A child,then._." she breathed.

Her other hand covered Emma's in turn, as she turned back towards her.

There was suddenly,surprisingly joy in her eyes.

It gave them a softness that amazed the younger woman.

"I had no idea." Regina whispered with a smile.

"The diapers.." the mayor rolled her eyes with laughter,"the fevers, the toys,the scratches.."

"You cannot believe the way Henry used to smile when he found a grasshopper. The first time he bit into an apple he had eyes the size of saucers! And every time.." The queen withdrew her hands to cover the smile on her mouth, "everytime he walked, he fell down, and he would just keep sitting there, and he did that for a year!It drove me quite mad!"

Her right flew to a place over her heart,and this time there wasn't any malice in her voice,but a plea for understanding.

"I am his mother... Because I was the one who knew him with that chipped front tooth before the seconds grew .." her voice drifted off.

There were tears in Emma's eyes,too.

"How did he chip it?"

" He ran into a lampost."

Emma now laughed,too.

"How did that happen?"

"Well," Regina threw her hands up in the air.

"He ran and didn't look, he was waiting for Archie to catch him, and he turned around, and there was a was so surprised to find it there,he even forgot to cry."

Both women smiled at each other.

But Emma's face fell quickly.

"Archie? How long has he been in therapy for?"

Regina sighed, rounded the couch and plopped rather unceremoniously down on it.

" Not for that long, but you know..." she raised her eyebrow suggestively.

"No one gets out of Storybrooke." Regina reached for her glass again.

"Company is rather limited."

She gave a lopsided smile before taking another sip.

"Why,then?" Emma asked, serious again.

"Why,what?" Regina picked up on her tone.

"All of this." the blonde gestured around the cool,stand offish mayorly mansion.

"The suffering, the strictness.."

"I am, dear Miss Swan, the mayor of a cursed town. And anyways," she set down her glass to refill Emma's.

"A tiger doesn't change its stripes,I believe is the saying."

There was a dark glint in her eyes.

"Weren't you happy?"

Again, Emma's question startled the queen.

"With Henry,I mean?" the blonde elaborated.

"Time passed."Regina refilled her own glass.

"And time had a meaning, all of a sudden. But some things," she sighed.

"Some things do not change."

She fixed Emma,with that intense look in her eyes again.

"Your mother's unhappiness gave me some pleasure.." a challenging smile played around her lips.

"Why was she unhappy?"Emma 's question was genuine.

It did take the queen aback nonetheless

"Didn't you read the book?" she asked,surprised.

"Of course I have read the book, but considering we're talking about real people here, or at least as real as they get,"Emma sighed,"and not fairy tale characters, even though..well,what I wanted to say was, why would Mary Margaret be unhappy? Everybody, and I mean absolutely everybody, yourself excluded,obviously, likes her, she has a job she loves, she genuinely cares about the kids she teaches, has a nice place to stay and no archnemesis that she is aware of."the sheriff shrugged.

"Well,Miss Swan, but Mary Margaret"there was an ironic undertone with the name," is without her true love. There is no suffering greater than that,let me tell you."

The queen slunk back into her pillow like a snake.

"But don't you see the flaw in your great plan?" Emma gestured with her glass,"She doesn't know it."

The queen leaned forward with a hiss, "But don't we all suffer without the ones we love?Aren't we aware of that?"

Emma remained unfazed.

"I don't know."

She picked up the queen's habit of swirling the liquid in her glass.

This was really good whiskey. She was wondering how many she had already had.

And where this line of questioning was going.

But she had the feeling they were getting to something there.

After all, it had been Snow White who had survived the apple and awoken from it.

Too bad they couldn't ask her how the true love's kiss thing would work on a ten year old.

Did Henry have a true love?Was that something meant for him?

Did they need to find her..or him?

Was there even a possibility for a him in the fairytale world the curse came from, that they were all a part of now?

If there would only be the possibility of a her, that would,at least, narrow things down by 50%.

Maybe it was that girl Paige, or Grace,or whatever her name was.

And Henry would end up with a crazy as a hat father in law.

Hold on, even though, the mad hatter wasn't all that mad, when everything he had been talking about had been true.

Although, a guy who tied up and forced random women to make hats at gunpoint was pretty wacko in her book.

Sorry,Henry.

"Emma?"

Obviously,the sheriff had been gazing into her glass for a little too long.

Turns out whiskey has hypnotic properties, even when you were just looking at it turning around and around.

"Yes."

The blonde caught the mayor's eyes.

"A penny for your thoughts?" there was a smile tugging at the corners of the mayor's mouth, and Emma now wondered how much her hostess had had to drink.

"I don't think there is true love for everyone." the blonde continued her former statement.

The mayor leaned back into her pillow,waiting for her to elaborate.

"Ok, you see.." Emma took another sip for steadiment,and because this was,indeed some really good whiskey, "in your world, maybe, everyone has a True Love."she paused, collecting her thoughts.

"And that is ok,cause it is a fairy tale world,but in my world" she made a big circle with her free hand,"that guarantee does not exist."

"You see, we try and try, and we believe,and then we lose faith,and we lose the person we love,and we generally lose," she took a deep breath," but that doesn't mean that we can't be happy. It's just a different kind of happiness."

She took another gulp of her drink.

This conversation was so much more bearable tipsy.

"So,there is no True Love in your world?" the queen was back to business.

"No,no..there is. But when you find it..And get to keep it,you're not happy..you're.." Emma paused for emphasis, she looked the queen right in the eyes to accentuate the dramatic pause, "lucky."

The queen only rolled her eyes, and sunk deeper back into her pillow.

"What a wretched world, no wonder this is the one chosen for the curse."

"Pah! Really?" Emma now leaned forward.

"And you were such a ray of sunshine and happiness in your pretty little world,that you got all wicked witch on a whole people?"

Now, the queen leaned forward.

"Snow White destroyed my happiness." she spit.

"Yeah, just blame EVERYTHING on my amnesiac mother." Emma's eyes glittered with anger.

"I read the book,remember?Just the fact that you keep pining over your unfulfilled destiny and keep making everyone miserable is sad enough, but you can't even be content,when you've got everything you ever wanted."

The queen stretched forward to cover even the last inches between them:

"Tell me then:What is it, . ?"

Emma really didn't mean it that way,but this was just a perfect retort,served right up into her face,literally, and she was really, awfully drunk.

She certainly didn't mean it that way, but she didn't think about it either,that she didn't.

She did think about Regina smiling and talking about Henry,about the light in her eyes, and the way the corners of her mouth rose up in self irony.

She thought about the softness her stern,stern face was capable of.

Which had surprised her so much.

But those things were hard to put into words.

She wanted to say"You have Henry."

She could have said, "Because,despite it all, you still have these things.",but she didn't.

She simply leaned forward and kissed her instead.

Kissed the evil queen herself.

The mayor of the cursed town.

Kissed Henry's other mother,who had had the hell of a time talking about his chipped tooth without smiling.

Evil is made and not born.

Happiness is,too.

And Emma Swan could feel her heart swell with joy, as the queen kissed her back.


	3. Chapter 3

Kissing Regina Mills was like nothing Emma had ever experienced.

Of course, there had been the one or other time she had kissed a girl.

Usually with a phony pretense like learning the art or "For Experimentation",or "Practicing for Boys" but making out with the mayor was altogether different.

It was more like eating a strange and exquisite foreign cake.

With each new kiss, each turn of their heads, each minute that passed, there was another layer of that many layered woman opened up to her.

A different blend, another taste..it was magic.

And she did, have the most exquisite lips ever.

The mayor finally leaned forward and pushed Emma gently back into the couch cushions.

There was a tenderness in the gesture, that Emma Swan had not expected the evil queen to be capable of.

Careful not to oppress the prone blonde beneath her with her body weight Regina shifted for her balance to lay in her hands which gripped the armrest behind the blonde's head.

Both of them stilled for a moment and grew silent as the air grew thick and heavy with the realization of the situation they were in.

"So." Emma said, while she tucked a strand of hair behind the mayor's ear.

She was nervous,for whatever reason, and her eyes followed the path of her fingers to avoid looking the other woman in the eye.

"So?" Regina smiled at her, that unnerving,gentle smile that made her seem a different person altogether, but there was of all things, a wistful sadness to the gesture.

She moved to balance herself on one arm, probably just because she could, Emma thought, and collected the blonde's hand from where it had settled to rest on her cheek.

This time the mayor made a point to catch the other woman's eye.

She raised Emma's hand up to her lips to kiss the palm.

Their fingers intertwined, as her lips coursed down to Emma's wrist.

There was a glint in the brunette's brown eyes that obliterated the sadness and gave way to something more ferocious, but not any more cheerful,before she closed her lids and savored the feeling of what she was about to do.

Regina tasted the blonde's pulse point with her tongue,before grazing her teeth over the spot.

Emma had the distant sensation of nearly loosing consciousness.

But she felt the mayor shake from the strain of holding herself above her with only one arm,and pulled the queen in to settle on top of her.

Now,there was a sensation she was unlikely to forget.

She felt the mayor's silken blouse on her skin, where her own cotton shirt ended.

She felt a silken clad stomach quiver against her own, felt her shape, stretching itself along her length, and by God, that was the most sensual thing that Emma Swan had yet experienced in the 28 years of her life.

It was as though a serpent had come and settled against her.

A dragon, a snake...

And she was a snake,too, twisting in the scalding desert sands against her opponent.

"Oh."

It was a sound of surprise,but was,much to her embarrasement , also a moan.

The mayor raised her upper body up,a cobra now, to look at her, and Emma was very aware,that this brought their stomachs only closer together.

She could feel the mayor's body move underneath that blasted silk.

Wow,not helping.

She bit her lip embarrassed.

Now, this was where she mayor had wanted her all this time.

In a position of defenselessness, with power over her.

The mischievous, evil glint in the dark eyes told her as much.

"Are you comfortable,Miss Swan?" the queen asked, and pressed her hips into Emma's to underline the question.

"_God!"_ Emma thought, but she was too proud to say it.

She swallowed instead.

"Quite." she said, making her voice as steady as it would be, and folded her arms behind her head in a manner of perfect repose and relaxation.

She wasn't going to be had this easily.

Her cheeks blushed at the suggestion of what was further to come.

Or who.

The thought chased the redness out of her cheeks.

She could feel the air bristle with the promise of another battle for power and dominance.

Two could play this game,but Emma Swan had had a very emotionally draining day, and she wasn't up for anymore games tonight.

"C'm here.." she rasped,suddenly hoarse,and reached behind the mayor's neck to pull her close.

Yeah, the woman in the revealing silk blouse with that maddening cashmere stencil skirt and the badass attitude was as hot as a volcano.

Yes, Emma was a living and breathing human being on whom that effect was not lost upon.

But she could have that not exactly at Granny's,but in a bar down the road.

She had had that in one or the other incarnation in the one or other bar down the road.

The woman on top of her picked up on the change in mood, and wordlessly settled against her.

Regina's head came to rest on the cotton clad shoulder.

"Are you ok?" she asked quietly,genuinely concerned.

"Are you?" Emma sighed.

"No, of course not." the mayor, too, deeply exhaled.

Emma fished her jacket from the floor, where it had gotten lost earlier in the tumble and covered the queen's shoulders and half of herself with it.

Regina snuck an arm underneath her and slung the other across her waist,pulling her in, lest she fall of the couch, which was only barely wide enough for two people.

"What are we going to do now?" the queen asked Emma as much as the silence around them.

"Well, I am going to do the sheriff thing and think,"she ran her fingers through the dark hair of the head that rested on her chest, secretly thrilled by the feeling of the mayor in her arms.

"And me?" Regina looked up at her, and she suddenly looked as tired as Emma felt.

"You are going to provide me with the necessary clues."

"Alright."

Both women remained silent for a while.

The queen listened to Emma's heartbeat.

It would have been so easy to get her heart,she was so close to it now, she could have simply ripped it out and put it in a box, a nice, golden one, with a swan on it, and made Emma do as she pleased.

But this, the slow steady motion of the blonde's fingers in her hair and her breathing against her ear..this was actually exactly what she pleased and Emma was already doing it of her own free will.

Which was amazing enough.

Amazing,too, was the steady little heartbeat.

Like a little drummer,from beginning til end.

Regina had always had a weakness for hearts.

The power they had over their owners, but also the bravery, to just keep going,through it all.

From way before birth,to a little past the very last breath.

Brave little soldiers, hearts were.

And she really did like just hearing them beat,like this one,right here,in that chest her head rested upon.

She wondered if Emma had been able to feel Henry's heartbeat underneath her own in the last weeks of pregnancy.

What a comforting,beautiful hum that must have been.

The heartbeats of very small children were very much faster than an adult's.

"Tell me about your happiness." Regina suddenly said into the silence.

Emma had half thought her asleep by now.

"My happiness?" Emma questioned.

"Your world's..there must be some sort,or there would be no more people in it."

Emma smiled.

"Our happiness is in the moment. There are moments of happiness, nothing lasts forever..But that's ok."

the sheriff wasn't exactly sure if she was lying with the last addendum, but "survival only" would have sounded too bleak, even for her.

It must have been nice to be living in a world where you have the concept of one true love,she thought.

One true love that is always reciprocated, that holds curse breaking magic and a lifetime guarantee of happiness.

She could have laughed at the concept.

She could have laughed,if there wouldn't have been a book lying on the glass table next to the couch,spread open at her parents' story.

She could have laughed if the bitterness of the loss of that lifetime guarantee hadn't left a dark black hole in the heart of the woman lying with her, that had made her desperate enough to curse an entire world.

It was,admittely, a little mind boggling.

But Emma could understand the dark heart of the queen somewhat.

As much as she had loved the TV show 7th heaven back as a small kid,she had grown to outright loathe it in her teen years.

The concept of a colorful,big foster family full of love and joy had made her bitter and violent with her own fate.

Only the realization, that TV was a hoax and life was a crap fest for basically everyone,a realization she had had to go to jail for to make, had put her back on track eventually.

Put her back on track,somewhat,at least.

Now, the world Regina had grown up in had a happy ending in it for everyone but her.

Now, turn her into a queen, give her shitloads of more power through magic, rub it in her face some more, and you have yourself a curse that twists the aspect of reality a little more to the experience of the one casting it.

Actually, it really did make sense.

Emma shifted a little bit to accommodate the mayor better and snuck her arm around the other woman's shoulder.

"Moments of happiness."the queen reiterated,trying to grasp the concept.

But calming down with the monotonous tone at her ear and terribly comfortable, her body reminded her of the toll the day's strenuous events had had on her,and she could feel her mind begin to slow and feel drowsy.

She readjusted her head on Emma's chest and moved the hand that lay on the blonde's waist to rest beside her head underneath the blonde's right clavicula, the way she usually fell asleep on her silken pillow.

"I'm ok with that." she murmured, before sleep finally took her away.

Emma ran her fingers through the dark hair again.

"You're a strange woman, your majesty." she whispered.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:Excuse the shortness of this chapter and the longish wait. This was supposed to be a vacation project,and my time off ended prematurely. I hope the next weeks will be kinder and leave more time and space for writing and inspiration. These chapters are a bit rocky, I hope you like them anyways:-) Thanks for your kind reviews of the past chapters!**

The mayor had spent a small fortune on the mayorly mansion and its furnishings.

An investment that certainly paid off now, that the early morning sun found its way into the windows.

Emma awoke with her head still on the armrest and her arm draped about the woman that lay snuggled up against her.

She was tired beyond words, and nothing sounded more alluring to her head in that moment than to just keep listening to the mayor's even breathing and allow for sleep to reclaim her.

But she had stayed true to her promise and spent a good part of the last night awake and thinking.

There were a few things that she needed to ask the queen,and a few things they needed to do.

She shifted from her position and was positively surprised to find her neck not hurting.

This really was one awfully comfortable couch,the blonde figured.

Her movement got the mayor to stir as well.

Dark eyes opened, and in a moment of desorientation fixed on her own green ones.

Emma could see the mayor take in the situation.

"_My house."_Check.

"_Living Room."_Check.

"_Lying on top of something breathing."_Check.

Uh oh.

"_Clothed."_ Thank Goodness. Check.

"_But what is Emma Swan doing here?"_ .

The mayor had obviously been drunker than Emma had expected the previous night.

Well, now this gave the word awkward a whole new definition.

"Hi!" the sheriff said with a little smile and a wave of her free hand.

Of course, the little unnecessary gesture only made it that more obvious where her other hand was resting, right on top of the mayor's shoulder.

And really, there was no other place for it in the confined space of the couch, so,by necessity,Emma left it there.

The Dragonslayer's daughter felt as though she had awoken with a beast on her very chest,and at any moment,Regina would start breathing fire at her.

Her already dark eyes could turn a very disturbing shade of brown and black, that made them almost gleam red.

But thankfully, the mayor's really was the best memory in town, and she finally remembered the extended version of the previous evening.

"_Made out with the archnemesis."_Check.

She looked down to collect her thoughts for a moment,before she asked a lot more human,than she had at first looked,"Did you rest well?"

Emma gave her a small,still insecure, smile,amused at the choice of wording.

Even half asleep, Regina was still regal,all queen, while she wouldn't barely have managed half a grunt in a semi somnolent state, "Rest well,I did. Thank you."

And suddenly there it was again.

The mayor was surprised by something,the gratitude, her smile, the twinkle in the green eyes...there was something...she couldn't place it,couldn't name it, but it upset the queen,somehow, made her very still and very agitated at the same time.

And very sure,that she had lingered in this compromising position for far too long.

The mayor uncurled herself from her sleeping pose and stretched, turning, by necessity fully onto the blonde.

"Sorry," she breathed briefly,as her weight settled fully onto the sheriff, before she lifted herself off and over her in one smooth move.

Emma blinked twice, releasing the breath she had innocently taken just moments before,and which then had become inexplicably stuck somewhere in her throat, as Regina had turned towards her.

"_Hot as a volcano.." _her thought from the night before returned to her in a slurren memory.

Her eyes followed Henry's other mother,as she sauntered into the kitchen, straightening her skirt as she went.

Emma Swan shook her head to clear it from the cobwebs of thoughts lingering at the edges, unthought.

This was neither the time nor the place to be perusing that particular Pandora's Box.

She was suddenly very grateful for the sunlight of an early day to be falling into the room through spotless windows.

"I'm going to call into the office and make breakfast. You are welcome to catch some more sleep, if you prefer." the mayor called from inside the kitchen.

She sounded matter of fact, tried to be back up to her nonchalant style,but Emma, who had had a taste or two of snarky Mayor Mills, of hurt and angry mayor Mills,of desperate Mayor Mills, wasn't really getting tricked by her that well anymore.

The woman was still hard to read,but the sheriff could tell two things right off the bat:

That Regina needed a moment to herself, and that there was an urgency in her voice,that was most likely related to her worry for Henry.

"No,thanks," the sheriff shouted into her general direction.

"I'm just going to quickly grab a shower, we have work to do."

At this, Regina poked her head out of the kitchen door, portable phone already in hand.

"We do?" she asked,almost hopeful.

And Emma was, for the first time this morning, genuinely happy, that she hadn't gotten that much sleep the previous night.

"Yes,we do." this time her smile was easier, it spoke of deeds,of things to do, of progress and hope.

She had an idea. A hunch.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:Sorry for re upload. The Doc manager edited out our favorite evil pawnbroker.**

By the time Emma came into the kitchen,back in her old clothes, toweling her hair dry, the mayor had obviously already taken care of her phone calls and was in the middle of making breakfast.

No sooner had the blonde sat down on one of the high stools in front of the kitchen island, than a steaming mug of hot coffee had appeared before her.

"Milk,Sugar?" the mayor asked ,her back already half turned again, her hands busy at the stove.

"Milk..thanks."Emma hadn't pegged the queen as the homebody type.

A small carafe of milk was set down before her,along with a fork and a knife on a napkin, a plate and a mysterious bowl of blueberries.

The phone next to the stove rang, and the owner of the kitchen answered it quickly, pinning it between chin and neck in one swift move.

"Goodness, Oliver, you're probably the most inept secretary this planet has to offer.I told you just a mere five minutes ago...yes."

The mayor started ladling out pancakes from a sizzling frying pan,while dressing down her secretary without missing a beat.

Just another,regular day in the life of Regina Mills.

Emma only now noticed, that the brunette was wearing an apron with a bright red apple on it, and a short ponytail that effectively kept her hair out of her face.

The queen noticed her guest noticing and credited the blonde with a brief smile and a roll of the eyes while she lavished yet another assault of verbal abuse on the poor recipient at the other end of the line.

Emma sat a bit dumbstruck before half a mountain of pancakes.

Another look at the table and Regina completed the set up with the missing maple sirup, and wished her assistant a sweet goodbye with a "Try not tearing the whole place down while I'm gone and try to not call me for five minutes,Oliver. And remember,four copies. Bye."

She slunk onto the bar stool opposite Emma and took up her own silverware.

"Dig in." she said,and commenced doing so herself.

Emma kept looking at her,still flabbergasted.

"These are not poisoned," The queen gave her a dark smile, "and anyways," she pointed to the blueberries" I only do apples."

The grimace on her face faltered.

Her cynicism failed her when it came to Henry.

"I was thinking," Emma welcomed the quick change of subject.

"Exactly how did you poison the apple?"

So, back to business it was.

Emma felt her hair still dark and wet and only finding its way back slowly into her customary curls as it dried, she felt the weight of fatigue heavy on her eyes, but there was an urgency, a worry in the room, that Regina tried to downplay in an uncharacteristic display of joviality.

She had been so anxious, that she had begun making breakfast while taking care of her phonecalls and waiting for Emma to reappear from the shower.

It always calmed her nerves,cooking.

Not that they needed calming that often.

"I didn't." Regina carefully cut off another slice of her pancake.

"I uhm, got it from another witch, whose specialty was..well, food. The apple isn't poisoned,it just is what it is..a weapon. Magically created. An object made of magic, containing certain properties. Magical objects are usually crafted for a singular purpose...or two."

Emma thought about this for a moment.

"Back in the fairytale world, I take it?"

_There._

Regina swallowed the piece of pancake in her mouth before she spoke,

"Of course." she cut off another slice and brought it to her mouth.

Without looking up at the other woman at the table, she added,quietly,

"It was the same apple I poisoned your mother with."

"The same?Didn't she eat it?" Emma's eyes grew wide.

The mayor paused in between forkfuls.

"It only takes a bite." she explained smiling sardonically before bringing another slice of pancake to her mouth.

That piece of information was a bit hard to get one's head around.

"How did it get here?" Emma's mind still had trouble processing the concept of the two worlds, but this really didn't make much sense.

The queen leaned back in her chair.

"Jefferson got it for me, a few days ago".

Now Emma had stopped eating altogether.

"He used his hat to bridge the worlds,to get it." the queen elaborated.

"His _hat_?" Emma looked at the queen to see if she was joking.

"Yes,that's his kind of magic."

"But I thought there was no magic in this world?" Emma now leaned forward, her food forgotten.

The Mad Hatter,that obviously, wasn't that mad after all..

Her run in with him hadn't been altogether pleasant.

And one thing had been for certain: There had been no magic anywhere near that hat of his..he had begged her..he had threatened her. He had been desperate.

For magic.

"There isn't." the queen sighed.

"Only the little that we brought with us."

"You brought magic with you?" it still didn't really make sense. Emma didn't think that magic was something you put into your beauty case for your little trip on a curse into a different world.

The queen shifted on her seat.

"There was a little,that I brought with me..but it's all used up now.." she grimaced.

"Jefferson and his hat used the last I had to get that apple."

"Wow, you really had it in for me, didn't you?" Emma shook her head and dug back into her pancake.

There was a brief bout of silence while both of them ate.

Emma almost expected the phone to ring again.

Finally, she spoke up.

"There is no cure to the apple's poisoning, but magic,is there?And we have none of that left."

There had to be a way around that, the sheriff's head hurt from thinking, but even if she would have to crack her skull about this, she would find a solution.

After all, it had been beaten once before. That mysterious magic apple murder weapon.

"How did it work in the other world?Did my father have a spell or a piece of countermagic for the apple's?"

"True Love's kiss." the queen smiled her bitter,self ironic smile, "it's the most powerful magic of all. It's what saved your mother."

Emma caught the queen's eyes.

"But we don't know who Henry's true love is..does that still count if no one knows?Would that even work here?"

In her mind,she had talked Mary Margaret into letting every girl in the whole school kiss the sleeping then every boy. Just to make sure.

There was a line leading right out of the hospital, all the way down the street.

She wished that all they needed to find was a mere glass slipper. That would be a lot easier, than finding true they needed to get stuck in a fairytale..couldn't they make this the one with the funky shoes?

But they would do whatever it took, and if that meant for every double x chromosome in town to be laying a kiss on Henry's lips,so be it.

Too bad that he wouldn't be remembering his first hundred or so kisses.

"I doubt that this particular concept would work on a ten year old in a world with no magic. With no concept of True Love." the mayor was gazing out of the kitchen window,looking for ideas.

"If only I had some magic left.." she sighed,regretfully.

Suddenly Emma perked up,something had caught at the edge of her mind.

"You are the only person here, capable of magic, in this whole town of magical fairytale characters?" Emma was looking the queen deeply into the eye.

Jefferson...mad and lonely Jefferson had reached into another world and gotten that apple..maybe there was somebody else who could do them a favor.

Strike a deal.

"Mr. Gold" both of them said unisono.

Objects that are made of magic.

Brought into this world.

Pertaining certain properties...

A rather peculiar pawn shop..

Regina slipped off of her stool.

"He remembers." she whispered.

Emma went to get her jacket.

"He won't be in for another forty minutes."she suddenly said with a glance at her watch.

"I'll go change." Regina said, taking her apron off and hurrying out of the kitchen.

"I'll do the dishes in the meantime."Emma murmured to an empty kitchen while she picked up the queen's apron.

Mr. Gold.

She was wondering about the price already.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:I apologize for the brevity of the next couple of chapters. I decided to post them separately to make them easier to edit. They will also grow a bit of staccato in rhythm, as we skim over the parts you already know from the show. Let me know if this does or does not work for you. Thank you,sincerely,for the lovey reviews and have a good rest-weekend!**

* * *

The bell at the pawnbrokers tinkled as it did every day.

As though nothing was amiss.

As though the world didn't stand on end.

As though the two women entering weren't the mayor of the cursed town and it's savior in one entrance, causing only a single sound of the bell above the door.

"_So,the day has come.."_ the pawnbroker thought, and as he did every challenge ever since he had started taking control of things and lost his cowardice, so did he meet this one, with a calm and even smile.

"Good morning,Ladies, how may I be of assistance?" he began, but very expectedly, the hot headed sheriff was already grabbing his counter fiercely.

And she did not mean to mess around.

The dear.

"Do my eyes deceive me,or are these the eyes of a believer?" Rumpelstiltskin asked sweetly.

Emma forewent answering his question and only responded with a curt, "Henry is sick, we need magic, can you help us?"

The pawnbroker's eyes briefly wandered to the queen standing only a few steps behind her champion,and he quirked an almost invisible eyebrow.

"_Us"_he thought..a how very interesting concept.

"Yes..there is something."a line practiced for almost thirty years..resounding in his head over and over..today really was a special day.

_The _special day.

He began elaborating a bit on his potion of true love,which,to his satisfaction earned him the respect and raised eyebrow of the only other fellow magician in the room, he then made very clear exactly who it would have to be to get the elixir.

"Her. She's the mother. She's the savior." he could see Regina being stung by the words, but he couldn't help it. Torturing her was a hobby of his he only got to practice way too rarely.

"You're going to need this..your father's sword." Well prepared,he procured it from underneath his sales desk.

Polished and well cared for.

It was a beautiful weapon.

28 years in exile had mellowed him out, or he surely would have commented on its size in front of the two women.

He had smirked more than once when James had tossed it around aimlessly back in the old days.

Compared to the thing it was supposed to overcome, though, it was still minuscule,give or take a few inches..it really didn't make a difference.

He looked at Emma,who weighed the sword carefully in her hand, and then at the queen, who now laid a hand on the sheriff's forearm, guiding her to go,after he had given them brief and vague instructions.

Very interesting,indeed.

"I'll tell you everything you need to know", she said, with a deep look into the savior's green eyes.

Oh, this was not lost on the pawnbroker, and he smiled, inwardly.

He also gave up any plans that he had had to joke about the size of the sword.

It didn't matter anyway.

He shrugged his shoulders and simply wished both of them farewell.

Ah,a common son lost, closeness, infatuation,jealousy...desperate souls..this was going to make things just that much easier for him.

* * *

Back in town, the two women had arrived at their destination.

Emma could not help but wonder how a secret door had come to be in as inconspicious an abandoned office building such as this.

She felt more caught up in a Bond movie than in Henry's little fairytale world of Storybrooke.

The heavy weapon in her hand and the sharp pang in her heart at the thought of him shifted everything back into focus,though.

The queen had lead her to a wall pertaining a map of the world, designwise probably from the seventies. Very unmayorlike.

A few touches revealed a hidden wall with plugs and switches, and Emma Swan desperately tried to place the Bond movie that kept tugging at her mind with deja vu.

Much to her surprise and of all things, Regina begun operating an aged freight elevator.

After the sleek wall of moving mirrors,this wasn't quite what the Sheriff had expected.

An ancient door slid open.

Brrr..different movie association altogether.

Emma gingerly took a few steps forward,testing the brittle,wooden floor of the contraption.

"Aren't you coming down with me?" she asked, as Regina remained standing by the controls.

"Sorry, can't do,it's is a two man job,this is hand operated."the mayor explained evenly.

But Emma could hear the strain in her voice.

"And this is trust inspiring, exactly how?" a blonde eyebrow quirked up in joking.

There was nothing she could do about it anyway.

She had to trust Rumpelstiltskin, the mayor,and this blasted elevator to save her son.

They had her ass.

The three least trustworthy things ever,should that question ever come up in a gameshow.

But then, it was their son, and at least the mayor would not do anything to crush the only hope they had for saving Henry.

Her.

Now, only the other big two least trustworthy things ever left.

Regina's dark,worried eyes lit up for a brief moment at the Sheriff's joke.

But her mood changed quickly.

"You just come back..with what we need..for Henry..ok?" she said, her voice raspy.

There was something she wasn't telling Emma, the blonde's spider senses told her,but she was distracted.

The mayor's hand had strayed again to the sheriff's forearm, grasping it tightly.

Again, the urgency, the intensity,the...

Their eyes caught,as both of them looked up from the gesture, and there was something in the queen's eyes,then,that Emma could not place,that was hidden too quickly for analysis, and that there was no time for now, anyways.

She got into the elevator, sword in hand.

Emma didn't feel like a fairytale hero at all.

She felt like the regular blonde in a freight elevator going down into a horror movie.

The blade provided little comfort..unless her task was to slice sushi down in the depths of Storybrooke.

Regina's eyes were still on her as she was lowered into the blackness, but Emma did not dare look up.

She would not have been able to stand the darkness for the light.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: So,let's see if we can make a bit of a difference here, half of the cast and crew from OUAT are supportive of this short film project "Whispers of Life" which centers around a young gay guy meaning to take his life, and being saved through a trip of the imagination. Fairy tales, mystical creatures,whatnots. Why I think this is a great idea?I really do believe that stories have the power to save lives. They have the power to give hope,and without that..well,things would look bleak for many of us. Also, the fairytale imagination thing. **

**They are still looking for some money for their post production woes, the very much most of it is raised already, which means, that if only every second one of you who reads this heads over to the indiegogo whispersoflifepost campaign site and donates ten bucks in the next 15 hours or so, they're set. If you read this and the time is up,or money isn't that loose in your pocket, do something nice for someone else anyway. Cause it's Sunday, cause it's one of the last days of sunshine in the Northern Hemisphere...or just because. **

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!  
**

* * *

The elevator landed with too much of a clang for her taste,but the sheriff quickly got away from it and into scouting.

No one had really told her,what she was looking for,although she was pretty sure, that both of the sorcerers in her new extended circle of acquaintances knew.

What form exactly was Regina's friend trapped in,that wouldn't want to make her speak to her old pal in 28 years?

Her back hit upon rock.

Upon rock that moved.

* * *

Emma turned around and..

"Oh." she said.

If she had to be some sort of fairytale offspring..

If her son had to come looking for her, as the savior,from a book..

Couldn't it have been the adventures of "My Little Pony"or something?

She dropped the sword.

"_Screw this!" _she had something bettter.

After all, Sheriff was the best job in town.

She fired her state warranted gun.

She fired it,until it was empty.

And nothing happened.

Nothing whatsoever.

Not a dent in the ..the thing.

The monstrously big,fire spewing...thing.

Emma ran..she ran to play hide and seek with a live and moving flame thrower.

Yesterday had not been her day.

Today wasn't her day either.

Maybe this wasn't her week.

She came up short in front of a ravine.

Nope, definitely not her week.

She ran and goaded and ducked,and the thing flew above her and off into the abyss.

Emma rolled her eyes.

All in a hard day's work.

Maybe this week wasn't so bad after all,she'd get what..

Bad things,turns out, can fly..like coackroaches.

Damnit all to he..

Her father's sword still glay gleaming in the dust.

Oh, well,let's do it their way then.

It wasn't like she had that much of a choice if she didn't want to turn out the charcoal meal of the day for Regina's friend.

Emma felt, that she was trying to slaughter a rabied bulldog with a toothpick.

But a well placed toothpick could work wonders.

She looked at the beast that reared before her,sure of its triumph.

Regina had tipped her off about a hot,pulsating center, the creature's weak spot,and Emma could see it now, see what the Queen had meant.

"Hope you did your research well.." Emma thought to herself.

And

"Here goes Nothing." as she threw the ridiculously long sword.

It found it's mark, and the thing crumbled into ashes.

"Wow." the sheriff exhaled.

They sure didn't have a ride like that in Disney World.

In the ashes, there was something..glittering, and Emma Swan knew,that she had found what she had come for.

Rumpel sure knew how to hide love away in style.

She dusted the glittering ellipse off from reptile remains and picked it up.

Pretty.

With the egg safely cradled in her arms, she reentered the elevator and pushed the button for up.

Hand operated.

Regina was at the other end...knowing that she was safe now.

Did she think,that she had failed?

A surge of anger cursed through the blonde.

She could have mentioned the thing about the fire.

Or the fact,that her foe,literally, was as big as a house..or-

The elevator clanked to a stop mid ascent.

Mr Gold's head suddenly appeared in the small opening of the door above her.

"The mayor has abandoned you,and sabotaged the elevator,we're running out of time..Henry.." the pawnbroker yelled down to her,his voice thinning out meaningfully.

"Wait!I'm coming up!"There were some things Emma needed to see for herself, and climbing the rigged elevator shaft was probably the easiest thing she had done today.

"You can't carry the egg,throw it up to me!"the voice above her sounded.

But something wasn't right.

Emma's mind caught.

Unbidden, the image of Regina swam before her eyes.

When she had gotten into that elevator...the way she had looked at her then..

There had been something in the queen's eyes..something that did not add up with abandonment and betrayal.

Maybe something had happened to Henry?

But..wait.

"_Rumpelstiltskin.."_

Emma looked at the man standing against the light above her.

No, not Mr. Gold..it was Rumpel..

"_Egg my ass"_..the sheriff thought.

She opened her trademark red leather jacket a bit wider and tucked the jewel encrusted ellipse safely away keeping her breasts company to then zip it back up as far as it would go.

"_True Love."_ she thought drily as she began her ascent.

"_This is probably as close as the girls have ever gotten..."_she smiled sardonically as she scaled the reilings, wondering what would await her on ground level.

Mr. Gold had withdrawn already when she finally reached the room.

Whom she did,however find there, was Regina Mills, tied to a chair, facing the window.

Sitting very still.

Emma had to hand it to the pawnbroker.

She had only fought an oversized fire spitting reptile,sword and all, but the cane bearing older man had managed to tie the mayor up.

It was beyond her.

Magic,definitely.

Dark,powerful,magic.

She couldn't help a smile.

Emma adjusted the egg in her jacket,and made her way over to the tied up mayor.

Regina's eyes were trained on the window across the room, but instead of the glare Emma would have thought she was sending after Gold, silently cursing him to smolder in the heat of seven searing suns, there was a sadness, a melancholy in the gaze,that made the sheriff think about the Queen from Henry's book.

There was something in her eyes, that reminded Emma of someone who had seen lives and worlds pass...and remained.

She reached out and careful not to startle her, laid a soot covered hand on the mayor's shoulder, immediately mentally berating herself for probably ruining the immacuately cleaned blazer for good.

Regina shhuddered under her touch and slowly turned around.

Her eyes followed Emma carefully, guarded now, inquisitive, as the blonde rounded her and began to unfasten the bonds that kept the witch tied to the chair.

When her hands and feet were effectively freed and Regina still hadn't moved to undo the tape from her mouth, Emma did it for her.

The sharp pain that followed finally made her snap out of it.

"Outch! Miss Swan, I am sure that could have been handled a little bit more delicately!" she exclaimed while running the back of her hand across her lips to ease the pain.

"Really?" Emma huffed, balling her hands into fits and resting them in her side.

"You send me down to face your "Friend"" she used her hands to make annotation marks "without as much as a word of warning or a fire extinguisher..the thing almost barbecues me for lunch,since it is, also "surprise" there, bullet proof, not to mention as big as my apartment _building_ in Boston, I manage to evade it, only to discover it can _fly.." _Emma's glare intensified as she felt the sheer unlikeliness of the situation and the strain she was under just a few minutes ago wash over her, "and I do manage and kill it it with an..extended knife anyways, get what we need to save Henry, climb a friggin' elevator shaft, free you, AND you still have the nerve_ to friggin bitch?!"_she threw her hands up in exasperation.

"You have it?" Regina's voice sounded very small, very quiet, her hands held onto the armrests of her chair for dear life.

"Yes, I have it." the blonde grumbled in return, unzipping her leather jacket to show the Queen what she had recovered from the abyss.

A jewel encrusted egg, the size of an ostriches.

Regina got up in a swift move and thoughtfully ran her hand over the gems.

A smile ghosted over her face.

"We need to go, who knows what Gold is coming up with next, now that he knows that we have his preciousss.." she said evenly.

Emma raised an eyebrow.

"Really?A popculture reference,your highness?Who knew you had it in you?" a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Regina recuperated by urgently pulling on her hand,while Emma secured the egg under her arm.

She felt like a football player as they stepped outside and hurried along the quiet streets of Storybrooke towards the hospital.

"Really, . Slaying a dragon..who knew you had it in _you?_" Regina answered finally in their rush, her eyes twinkled as she briefly glanced back at the savior.

There was genuine surprise there...and appreciation.

Emma lowered her eyes to the ground to hide her blush.

She only retorted with a half hearted mumble,

"So it really was a dragon, then..cause I was wondering about that."


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N:I apologize for the very far apart updates. Honestly, I meant to get this all written and finished up during my vacation in May last year, but wasn't happy at all with the story and had to rewrite the following chapters from scratch. I did write out Regina's trick in May already, so kudos, to the reviewer who caught on to the ensuing obstacle our heroines are about to encounter in this chapter. I hope you enjoy!  
_

* * *

They returned to the hospital in the same manner they had left it the previous evening, hand in hand.

A fact,that was not lost on Dr Whale who was doing rounds.

He paused his pen mid sentence on his paper.

His mouth forgot to close.

He blinked twice.

And then shook his head.

One of the saving graces of humans, was, how they could cope with tragedy.

How,sometimes, it brought them closer together.

How sometimes, it brought out the best in them.

It made the field of medicine, with its propensity for sickness and death, bearable,somehow.

Sometimes.

* * *

Upon entering Henry's room, Regina and Emma both were surprised to be finding Mary Margaret sitting there.

"I was reading to him for a little bit." his teacher said, chancing a brief glance at the joined hands of her roommate and the viscious mayor.

"Miss Blanchard." Regina said tersely in way of greeting, but she held on to the Sheriff's hand nonetheless.

Emma turned to look at the woman next to her.

"Thank you, Miss Blanchard." Regina corrected herself and even managed a tight smile.

Mary Margaret took the hint, closed her book, and got up to leave, taking her purse with her.

"You know where I am, if you need me." Mary Margaret whispered to Emma as she passed her by on the way to the door.

She briefly squeezed her roommate's shoulder.

After the door had fallen shut behind her,Emma turned to Regina, "Shall we?"

Disengaging herself from the mayor's smooth palm,she sat the golden egg onto the nightstand by Henry's bed.

"It's locked." she noticed.

Regina carefully picked the bejeweled piece up.

"The jewels "she thought aloud, while she turned it over in her hands," are meant for distraction, to distract from the content, serving as adornments, to imply, that this is merely an item used for decoration, not containing anything within." she gave the orb another turn"They hold no meaning or pattern as to its opening, not meaning to give away,that there could,actually, be anything hidden within,"again,she twisted the egg around it's axis, holding it against the light of the newly risen sun, "but upon more careful examination, it has hinges and a..lock.."she sighed" there ought to be a key.."

Emma quickly interjected, "Mr Gold would probably have that key."

Mentally, she was already halfway out of that door and threatening the town's pawnbroker to within an inch of his life.

Probably less.

That devious,double crossing,little skank.

"Of course he does." Regina sat the egg down on the nightstand.

It fell over, so she began to stabilize it with a napkin a small sugar bowl,a miniscule can of cream, a coffee cup..things the nurse had brought in for Mary Margaret while she had read to Henry.

"He hid something he wanted to bring to this world inside something..someone,"she corrected herself,"whom I would bring, because he didn't know how much, if any magic he would have left".

She turned to Emma, smiling mysteriously.

"He needed a solution with a key, in case there would be absolutely no magic."

"So we'll get the key?" the sheriff asked.

"You know he can't be threatened..and he knows desperation..he could ask for your first to last born right now.."the queen smiled again, her satisfied business smile.

Which faltered a bit as she remembered the results of the last deal she had struck with him.

That undersized pint had managed to tie her, HER, up by simply asking her to sit down, be quiet and hold still. "Please".

"There's another way."she began looking for something on the saucer of Mary Margaret's coffee cup.

"What if he couldn't bring the key? If the key hadn't made it?"

Emma looked at her.

"Magic? I thought we had nothing left of that?"

"We don't." Regina had found what she was looking for."But what it comes down to, with magic..."she held a small tea spoon up in the air."It's all just a trick in the end." with that, she tapped the spoon twice on the top of the egg, which suddenly began peeling itself open like an orange.

A small bottle appeared, holding a swirling,purple liquid.

"Wow," Emma said,"So this is what true love looks like."

"I've always been given to understand looks were secondary in this matter." Regina responded and held out the bottle to the blonde.

"You're the savior after all."

Emma nodded and uncorked the flacon.

"What do I do with it?"she was suddenly unsure.

"Follow your instinct." the queen stood next to her, her hands folded before her, fidgeting.

Emma allowed a drop of the purple liquid to fall on top of her index finger,hoping it wouldn't burn right through it.

But the liquid was smooth as silk, and smelled faintly of berries and apples.

She leaned over Henry with a silent prayer and dabbed at this eyelids.

The mayor had said something about sleep and dreams..she hoped this was going to work.

She really hoped..

Nothing happened.

The sheriff gave a questioning look to the competence on magic in the room.

"Maybe the lips?" Regina suggested.

Suddenly, the child before them drew a deep breath.

"Henry!" both of them immediately held a hand of his on either side of the bed.

Small eyelids fluttered open.

The alarms by the side of his bed protested loudly, as the child, suddenly, sat up.

Henry blinked once,twice.

The blood rushed to his face breathing a wholesome redness into his pale cheeks.

"_You did it._" Regina breathed at the Sherriff, the surprise and gratitude in her eyes were almost eclipsed by her relief.

She smiled at Henry tears in her eyes and kissed his forehead, before pulling him against her chest despite the boy's protests.

Emma quickly followed suit, and Henry finally gave up the struggle against the affection of both of his mothers.

"You're choking me", he said drily after a few moments had passed.

"Uhm,yes." Regina's voice was heavy with tears as she straightened herself.

"Sorry about that." Emma leaned back awkwardly.

Thankfully, Dr Whale chose that very moment to burst through the transparent doors.

"Henry!" he shouted,and he sounded almost as relieved as the boy's parents.

He strode over to the bed in two quick strides and adjusted some of the loose cables to get some decent readings on Henry's measurements.

"Nurse Beckett!" he shouted out into the hallway and proceeded to give the flustered nurse that hurried to Henry's bedside a quick set of instructions.

"I would like to take him home with me today,Doctor." Regina,standing with her hands clasped before her addressed the physician.

Dr Whale was about to protest.

His line of reasoning lay in monitoring and running tests, but there was an air of finality with the request, that did not allow for arguments.

"We still need to run a few tests before we can release him", the Doctor began, but quickly sized down his ambitious plans for his miniscule medical miracle.

"It's going to take a couple of hours for us to get him checked out."he withered under Regina's no nonsense glare.

"Maybe you could get things settled for him back home in the meantime? Bring some fresh clothes?" he lamely added.

Emma took Regina by the arm to keep the mayor from slaying the doc on the spot with her gaze.

"Good idea. I'll help." she steered the former evil queen away from Henry's bedside by the elbow.

"We'll be right back, honey."Regina yelled over her shoulder at her son."I'll make sure to bring your yellow sweater."

"It's his favorite." she whispered to Emma in the hallway.

"It has "The Green Lantern" on it."Regina uncharacteristically brabbled on, while they waited for the elevator.

Nurse Druitt, who had just seen them hold hands this morning in the very same spot did a double take, as she saw Emma holding on to the usually so stoic mayor's arm, who ranted about her son's love for superheroes.

"He has The Green Lantern on his lunch box as well." Regina continued as they made their way to the parking lot where she had left her car the previous evening.

Emma took the keys to the Benz from her shaking hands as she fished them out of her purse.

She opened up the passenger door for Regina who got in uncomplaining.

"You know, when he was seven it was all Batman this and Batman that, but he didn't like the darkness so much, and I wouldn't let him watch any of the movies,of course, just that cheesy seventies TV show, and then it was all Superman."

Emma rounded the Benz and got in on the driver's side as Regina buckled herself in.

"But he's been into "The Green Lantern" for one and a half years now." Regina stared straight ahead, her eyes fixed to a spot far beyond the windshield.

Emma sat motionless, staring out of the window of the silent car with her.

"Batman molded himself out of tragedy, the loss of his parents..I think he did understand that to a point at six or seven.." Regina's voice was very dry and hoarse all of a sudden lacking the easier, rambling tone of earlier.

"Superman was born a superhero, exiled and an essentially good guy." her voice cracked a bit.

"But the Green Lantern..he was just a regular guy,who found some sort of ring. A _magic _ring, which, would,with a few random limitations, give you anything you desired. "

She paused while a single leaf drifted onto the hood of her spotless car.

"He used it for good, when he could have had anything whatsoever." the evil queen whispered quietly.

Suddenly Regina was sobbing, hiding her face in her hands.

Emma who had not strapped herself in yet, expecting this, leaned over and pulled the mayor into her arms.

"I always had a thing for the villains,"the blonde whispered against the dark hair after a while.

Regina laughed through her tears, but somehow, that only made her cry harder.


End file.
